No fewer than 1,629,102 registered for the Paper and Pencil Test (PPT) option of the 2013 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) held nationwide last Saturday. The examination was not without drama. The candidates, their parents and guardians, invigilators, security operatives and other examination officials were the cast in the drama.

At many centres, there were issues with centre changes, invigilation, lateness and examination malpractices. Despite the efforts of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to check examination fraud, many candidates, in some cases with the help of officials, circumvented the measures. They entered the exam halls with what is referred to as “contraband”.

Strictness

The examination was either good or bad, depending on the candidate’s centre. Officials in some centres The Nation visited played strictly by the rules. They did not allow lateness; they dispossessed candidates of foreign materials before being allowed into the hall, and issued malpractice forms to those caught. At other centres, the officials looked the other way, or even ‘helped’ the candidates for a fee. Their malpractice forms were returned intact to JAMB.

JAMB officials at SMA College, Jakande Estate, Oke-Afa, Isolo, a Lagos suburb, were strict. They frisked the candidates and before the examination started they caught many with prepared answers scribbled on small pieces of paper hidden under shirt sleeves, in shoes, and other parts of the body.

A JAMB supervisor told The Nation that those apprehended would be handed over to the police.

“They (written answers) were collected from them before allowing them to enter the hall. We also warned them to drop whatever they had on them because if caught they would be made to fill the malpractice form. We have written the names of those we caught with answers in the hall, they have filled forms and we are going to hand them over to the police when they come,” he said.

He praised the teachers, saying they did a good job by cooperating with JAMB officials to fish out fraudsters.

Another invigilator said: “This school is very standard. I am impressed with the school and I recommend the school. Other private schools collect money but this one doesn’t. I have worked in a private school before and I know what I am saying.”

Candidates who wrote the examination at Pavillions 2 and 3 of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) saw invigilators as enemies or friends depending on the level of ‘understanding’. Many complained about strictness, sternness and harshness of some invigilators. They were said to have resisted cooperation, and the use of mobile phones which can be deployed in receiving answers via SMS.

A female candidate, who wrote in Pavilion 3, described the invigilators’ strictness as wickedness.

“The invigilators and the supervisors were so wicked and strict. They didn’t allow us to chat with friends, even the person staying beside you. The strictness of my invigilator compelled me to use my brain. I pray I pass this Jamb,” she said.

Ekande Johnson, who wrote at the Definitive Library, UNICAL, also, according to him, used his brains because there was nothing like ‘cooperation’ at his centre.

“All our invigilators squeezed their faces, starting from the beginning of the exam to the end. The security officers took our mobile phones from us but later returned them after the examination. In Physics and Mathematics, I just had to shade any alphabet that I felt will be the answer because I didn’t know them,” he fumed.

One girl was heard discussing with her friends afterwards that effective security meant she could not use her phone to receive answers she had paid an exorbitant amount for.

“I arranged with my mercenary to send me answers in Physics and Chemistry but the security was too tight that I had to drop my phone in my bag. What is hurting me now is that I paid the runs guy for three subjects but did not benefit from it. I pleaded with my invigilator to allow me enter with my mobile phone that this is the fourth time I’m writing Jamb but he refused,” she said.

An invigilator at UNICAL, Kingsley Eneje, said the strictness was to ensure that no malpractices were recorded. He thanked JAMB for the maximum security measures taken to check malpractices, especially the biometric thumbprinting capture system which, since introduced in 2011, has helped reduce impersonation.

Compromised officials

At centres where the invigilators and supervisors did not think collecting money to help candidates cheat was a bad idea, the rules were dumped. Candidates who did not prepare were happy, describing the invigilators as angels and thanking God for sending them their way.

At many centres in Kano and Jigawa states, candidates had a field day, using cell phones and other devices to get expo.

“Oga, by the grace of God, this is my last attempt for JAMB. I tried this examination for more than four times. But with what happened in the hall today, I am rest assured of a better score when the chips are down,” one of the candidates told our reporter.

According to him, in collaboration with the invigilators and security agencies who allegedly collected some money from candidates, “we were given the freedom to do whatever we liked. It was like a jamboree and I thank God for everything.”

A candidate who wrote at Pavilion 2 UNICAL said his invigilator was God-sent because he “cooperated.”

“The exam was okay and our invigilator cooperated well as he allowed us to cooperate. In fact, he was God-sent to help us,” he said.

It was not only invigilators helping candidates. Security operatives were also indicted. At the Faculty of Arts centre, one of the three within the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, an official of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), one of the paramilitary bodies deployed by JAMB to provide security, was caught attempting to send answers to some candidates through two cell phones.

A microchip with solutions to Mathematics (Type A) was also found on him. The officer who identified himself as Kazeem Adewale was caught by LASU security guards. Sandwiched between two security officials inside one of the university’s vans, he started pleading, claiming the phones and microchips were given to him by his boss, another female officer who he simply identified as Adesanu.

He said in Yoruba: Egbon, ee de bami bewon; sebi Yoruba bii temi leyin naa nso (please big brother, kindly help me appeal to them) he said to our reporter.

His boss, Adesanu, denied giving the phones and microchips to the suspect. Adewale was handed over to men from Ojo Police Station.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Prof Sena Bakre, who coordinated the three centres within LASU, said she had suspected Adewale was up to no good.

“He (Adewale) was moving around with suspicion,” said Prof Bakre. “He never stayed at his duty post. As soon as I realised this, I alerted LASU security to secretly place surveillance on him until he was eventually caught.”

Prof Bakre also said she suspected Adewale’s atrocities had the backing of his superiors, adding that following the suspect’s arrest, other NSCDC officials became nervous. She urged JAMB to beam its searchlight more on NSCDC officials, fingering them as one of the abettors of examination practices during the UTME.

“For me, I no longer find this civil defence people dependable again. They are usually the ones that help many of these students get the answers either via cell phones or any other means. I think the authority should do something about this. These people have outlived their usefulness,” she said.

To cut corners during the examination, many candidates registered in states or centres far from their homes. The Nation observed that thousands of candidates moved from one state to the other, especially from the Southeast to the Southsouth, Southwest and Northern states to write the examination, not because of inadequate centres as claimed during the registration, but because of fraud. They were helped by teachers and principals who charged them huge sums to organise special centres where they could write the examination and be assured of high grades.

According to Christian Ndu, a parent, in Nnewi, Anambra State, there was massive examination malpractice across board. Many who claimed to be principals of private schools and even government schools, and some cyber café operators, took their candidates outside Anambra to Cross River, Delta and Benue states to write the examination.

He said: “This generation of students could not write examinations in their schools but in arranged schools outside their states with the connivance of school heads. They are destroying the future of our children. They would grow to be disasters in the various offices they would be working.

“I witnessed a situation where a school took over 300 students on Friday aboard Rivers line Transport to schools in remote areas in Rivers and Cross River state and each student was forced to pay extra N3,500 for the exams excluding the normal JAMB fees.”

While officials collected money for examination malpractice, at the Community High school, Obioma in Udi local government area of Enugu State, close to Anambra, the teachers charged candidates N500 each to make use of the schools chairs for the examination.

Some of the candidates told The Nation that the teachers made it compulsory for over 400 candidates in the school and anybody that failed to pay was not given the question papers or OMR sheets. Candidates that did not have enough were forced to borrow from their friends.

A female candidate told The Nation that the teachers must have made over N300,000 from the forced levy.

Lateness

In the course of monitoring the UTME, The Nation discovered some candidates deliberately came late to enable them import answers into the hall.

In some centres in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State Capital, some came late, when the invigilators would not be strict in their supervision. Their alibi was mainly distance and transport hassles and in many cases they won the sympathy of the invigilators who allowed them to take the exams.

In some centres in Agege, Lagos, The Nation observed that a few candidates arrived more than one hour after the examination started and were not allowed into the halls. Many of them broke down in tears. They went on their knees or prostrated for the supervisors to allow them in.

Asked the reason for their lateness, some said they had to reprint their photo card (a one-page document detailing their names, registration number, centre name and number, institutions and programmes information, as well as their photographs) that morning because they learnt they needed a reference number which was only uploaded online recently.

But a supervisor at the Dairy Farm Senior Secondary School, Agege centre, Mr Oladayo Ibrahim, said the reprint was unnecessary as the candidates only needed to provide their registration and centre numbers for verification.

“I don’t know why you troubled yourself to reprint this slip when nobody will collect it from you. What we need for the verification is only your name and centre number. You people just talked to yourselves and decided to do what JAMB did not ask you to do,” he said to two candidates who came one hour late but were allowed into the examination halls.

But one young man who came after them was not that lucky though he laid prostrate on the sandy ground begging invigilators to beg the supervisor on his behalf. He pleaded in Yoruba: “When I got to the gate, they said I should reprint my slip so I picked a bike immediately; that was why I came late.”

At Sanngo Senior Secondary School, another centre nearby, three girls came 90 minutes late and wept as they waited for the supervisor, Mr Ahmed Ojodu, to attend to them. They claimed to have gone to another centre located in Pen Cinema, which they could not name, where their names did not turn up when they thumbprinted. They had no answer when asked why it took them more than one hour to get to Sanngo which is less than 10 minutes from Pen Cinema by foot.

Reminding the girls that the exam started at 9a.m., he asked them to return home. “It is 10.30a.m. and you are just coming when some people are concluding their exam. Please don’t harass me. Go home and come and write next year,” he said.

At Saint John of God Secondary School in Awka, Anambra State, more than 30 candidates were denied access to their centre because they were more than three hours late.

The Nation gathered that security men denied them access to the venue despite their pleas. The reason, according to one of the teachers, was because they came to the centre at 1pm, when the examination started at 10a.m.

“If we allow the students to enter the hall, they would not have done any thing tangible when the examination had almost ended, so the best option was to stop them from disturbing those who are serious,” the teacher said.

An the affected candidate, who gave her name as Chinenye, told The Nation that the teachers were just wicked, adding that some of them arrived at the gate at 11.30am but “they failed to open the gate for us, claiming that we were late.”

Some candidates in the north were late because of transportation problem. A candidate said she found it difficult getting a tricycle to the venue.

“As you are aware, the state government banned the movement of commercial motorcycles and this greatly affected some of us that very day. For instance I paid through my nose to charter a tricycle to my centre; and apart from that, I arrived very late because it took me quite some time to get a tricycle that agreed to convey me to such a long distance.

“Again, for the fact that the exam day was the last Saturday of the Month which is observed as sanitation day in Kano, transporters did not come out on time, unknown to them that the government cancelled the exercise,” Faith Emmanuel told The Nation.

Cellphones

Candidates were scanned by men of the NSCDC with metal body scanners to detect mobile phones or any metal object. However, some of them soon devised a means to avoid detection of the phones by removing the batteries.

At the UNICAL centre, some candidates came with two mobile phones – one of which was submitted at the point of entry while the other was smuggled inside by removing its battery. A candidate said once the battery is removed, there is no way the scanner will detect the phone.

After the exam, candidates from different centres in Lagos had a lot to say about how it went. Some spoke about how they were able to deceive the NSCDC officers. A female candidate said: “Upon all the security I still carry my own enter.” When asked by another how she did it, she said: “I carry am enter na.” Pointing to another female candidate, she added: “See this girl ehn, she carry plenty paper enter and they no catch her.”

A female candidate who wrote at the Agidingbi Senior Secondary School, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos said in a phone conversation while on a bus after the examination that she was able to use the mathematics answers sent to her mobile phone.

The suspects who were arrested at different centres were caught using phones, books, palm tops, scientific calculators, among others to answer questions.

The Nation gathered that some of the suspects were texting question types to agents planted outside the centres and were getting responses from which they shaded the supposedly correct options on the answer sheet.

The NSCDC Commandant for the state, Mr Aboluwoye Akinwande, said the suspects were arrested in 118 centres across Ogun Central, Ogun East and West. He said 30 candidates were arrested in Abeokuta; 17 in Lisabi; nine, Ewekoro; and one each at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, and the Molusi College centres.

Akinwande said: “The first thing is that they have been made to fill relevant form. Investigation will be conducted,that will determine their culpability and then we can decide on trial as necessary information about them have been collected.”